Jeremie Camilleri, the man accused of killing a young woman when he drove his car at her in Gżira, squeezed his eyes tight shut and took deep breaths, visibly moved as his mother took the witness stand in court on Thursday.

The mother declared that she was opting not to testify against her own son.

Camilleri is accused of murdering Pelin Kaya when he drove at her and then crashed into the Paul and Rocco service station a KFC outlet on January 18.

His mother approached the witness stand and after confirming her personal details in English, said that she chose not to testify after the court explained that the law entitled her, as a relative of the accused, to do so.

During her brief appearance in the courtroom, the accused showed rare signs of emotion as he cast sidelong glances at his mother as he sat at the dock. 

Two pathologists followed next at the witness stand, each reporting about the post-mortem examination they had carried out on the victim.

The cause of death was trauma due to blunt force which had transected the aorta (main artery) and also resulted in intracranial injury as well as injury to the base of the victim’s skull.

Two scene-of-crime officers, appointed by the inquiring magistrate to photograph the scene of crime and the victim’s corpse, presented their report on the findings.

They had reached the site of the incident at around 2.30am that day, marking 25 points including scratches along the pavement where the victim was flung after being hit by the BMW, other scratches at the service station, fuel spilt in the area together with stones, bricks, blood and debris.

They had recorded pieces of clothing worn by the victim.

They also took swabs from blood smears, clothes and a mobile phone.

Their task extended to the autopsy during which they took 54 photos recording the process.

They also took buccal swabs from Camilleri and photographed his BMW in daylight at the police compound where it was taken after the incident.

A scientific expert had analyzed four blood samples and a urine sample taken from the accused.

He presented his results confirming that the urine sample had tested positive to cocaine and cannabis but negative to alcohol.

The expert had carried out a confirmation test on the blood sample which showed the presence of cocaine, a metabolite of the drug, cannabis and other medicinals.

A DNA expert confirmed that three swabs taken from the steering wheel, the door and airbag inside the BMW matched Camilleri’s profile.

A blood sample matched that of the victim while another sample belonged to another woman.

The case, presided over by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, continues next month.

AG lawyers Kaylie Bonett and Nathaniel Falzon are prosecuting, together with Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Shamus Woods.

Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene’ Darmanin are defence counsel.

Lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi, Charlon Gouder and Ramona Attard are appearing parte civile.